A Scoping Study for the Establishment of a Data Monitoring Service
Funder: Office for National Statistics
Researchers: Mark Elliot and Kingsley Purdam
Dates: November 2004 to October 2005.
CAPRI recently carried out a study investigating, classifying and documenting individual data in the public domain and in restricted access databases. This study was valuable as part of the disclosure risk assessment process and indicated that Statistical Agencies can benefit by knowing what identification data is available to potential data intruders. Establishing the parameters of such data can greatly facilitate the task of maintaining the confidentiality of released data and can also be used to generate properly grounded scenarios of attack for various given data release frameworks.
The existence of electronic sources of personal information and the on-going development of high performance computing, have also highlighted the need for such studies. Further work is underway at CAPRI to investigate the impact of such data sources, but due to the accelerated expansion of data availability, there is an urgent need to move away from ad hoc snapshot studies to a coherent and continuous data monitoring service.
Background, AimsThe study will undertake a scoping study to explore a range of methods and options for the establishment of a data monitoring service. The study will provide an ongoing process for investigating, cataloguing, categorising, and documenting available data in UK databases (and to a lesser extent data on UK population units contained in overseas databases). This scoping study will include ongoing consultation with the potential users of the service.The datasets to be covered will include, but are not limited to:
The aim of the scoping study is to identify the existence and content of all large databases as well as several medium-sized businesses. Similar investigations will be made in respect of information about businesses, but to a lesser extent. |
MethodsThe study will develop methodology for the Data Monitoring Service by expanding on snap-shot work conducted previously by CAPRI. This development work will include, but is not limited to: Internet searching: The project will search the Internet for online resources, and entry points for services, for example on-line shopping. This will require entering data for a fictitious person into a web form up to the point where payment details are requested. Form analysis: The project will obtain and catalogue the data entry fields and data use specifications of paper forms from companies, organisations, political groups, clubs, charities and government departments. Security practices case studies: The project will establish links with organisations holding personal information and developing case studies of present and future plans for information gathering and handling practices. This will include consideration of such issues as data quality. Public Services: Public services will be increasingly accessed remotely as part of the government’s move towards E-Governance and data sharing. The project will examine the type of information requested by public bodies and the use protocols these are subject to. This will be ascertained via actual interaction with the services and the recording of information requests and will also include consideration of such issues as data quality. New methodologies: The project will also hope to hone and develop the methods of data monitoring during the course of undertaking the scoping study. |